CHAPTER XI.
OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXISTENCE OF OTHER THINGS.
1.

Knowledge of the existence of other Finite Beings is to be had only by actual Sensation.
The knowledge of our own being we have by intuition.

The existence of a God, reason clearly makes known to us, as has been shown.
The knowledge of the existence of ANY OTHER THING we can have only by SENSATION: for there being no necessary connexion of real existence with any IDEA a man hath in his memory; nor of any other existence but that of God with the existence of any particular man: no particular man can know the existence of any other being, but only when, by actual operating upon him, it makes itself perceived by him.

For, the having the idea of anything in our mind, no more proves the existence of that thing, than the picture of a man evidences his being in the world, or the visions of a dream make thereby a true history.
2.

Instance: Whiteness of this Paper.
It is therefore the ACTUAL RECEIVING of ideas from without that gives us notice of the existence of other things, and makes us know, that something doth exist at that time without us, which causes that idea in us; though perhaps we neither know nor consider how it does it.